A response to Sevan Nişanyan...

Attacking Atatürk has become fashionable.

Sevan Nişanyan has also claimed, "Why did Atatürk have no adopted sons?" or "Atatürk only ever adopted girls." It is clear what he means and what he intends to imply, but let us clarify the matter without beating around the bush.

First of all, the claim that Atatürk did not adopt any boys is inconsistent and false. The first child Atatürk adopted was Ömer. He was 12 years old and from Bitlis.

After Atatürk liberated Bitlis and Muş from Russian soldiers and Armenian gangs, he went to Bitlis to heal the wounds of the people, and on the morning of November 16, 1916, he met with the wounded lying in the hospital. After the hospital, he went to the Şerefiye Mosque and gave instructions for the cleaning of this mosque, which had been devastated during the Russian occupation. He also requested that some empty houses be cleaned to be used as an additional hospital. During the cleaning of these houses, the heads of about 10-15 Muslim women were found. These were women who had been massacred during the Armenian-Russian occupation.

In the city, Atatürk saw an orphan boy named Ömer, aged 12, whose parents had been massacred during the occupation, and took him under his wing. When it was heard that he had taken him in, three more orphaned children whose families had also been massacred were brought to him, but Atatürk could not take them in, so he provided financial support.

And he told the public to look after them.

If you want a source, see "Atatürk’ün Hatıra Defteri" (Atatürk's Diary). Şükrü Tezer. Turkish Historical Society publications, year 1972.

Şükrü Tezer was Atatürk's orderly at that time. He is a living witness to the events.

In the same work, it is also mentioned that Atatürk took ownership of a destitute child named İhsan, whom he saw on the road in the Diyarbakır region, and on December 2, 1916, he had him and Ömer memorize a part of the Turkish poem titled 'Yaşamak Kavgası' (The Struggle to Live) and encouraged them to read.

YOU KNOW ABDÜRRAHİM.

Abdürrahim Tunçak. He was from Van, and his mother and father were massacred during the occupation of Van. He was destitute. Atatürk took him in as well, took him to his mother in Istanbul, and looked after him like his own son. He even entrusted his family to him while he was going to Samsun for the War of Independence.

Abdürrahim, whose parents were massacred during the occupation of Van, does not remember his family. Because he never saw them. According to some, Abdürrahim's family was Armenian. But it could have been. This baseless claim could also have been grounded. What difference would it make? Atatürk did not think about these things. A child has no language, religion, or race.

A child is a child.

While taking in and protecting destitute children who were victims of wars, Atatürk did not discriminate based on nation or race. For example, while passing from Sivas to Anatolia, when he stopped in Kayseri, he visited an Armenian orphanage and, addressing the Armenian children whose mothers and fathers had been massacred or gone missing in the wars, said, "Do not worry at all. There is nothing to fear for you. We are working for the salvation of the homeland," and made them feel that they were safe.

Atatürk was a great and noble person, enough to look after even the children of the enemy during the war.

This was the news from the Vakit newspaper dated February 15, 1920.

Atatürk had lost his father at the age of 12. That is why he understood the state and feelings of these destitute children, acted as a father to them, and took them under his protection.

Among the adopted children Atatürk took in to care for, there are more girls than boys. This is true. But the reason for this is not gender discrimination. Such nonsense cannot be. The nation, which had been at war for 10 years since the Balkan Wars and had become miserable and wretched, accepted boys more easily in terms of work and labor. Boys were more valuable than girls at that time. Boys were easily adopted, but girls were difficult to adopt. Furthermore, destitute girls were more open to sexual harassment and abuse and more vulnerable. Knowing this, Atatürk showed more care for girls and took them in. Atatürk said, "Children should be protected from all kinds of neglect and abuse, and they should be treated more specially than adults under all circumstances." He would say at every opportunity that he loved all children like his own.

When expressing opinions on this subject, one must understand what Atatürk experienced during the years of war and exile. One must understand the miserable state of mind of the people living at that time. We must understand the pain that families experienced in those years. During the years of war and exile, mothers and fathers who gave up their own lives gave their children to their neighbors so that they might save their lives. To understand this pain, one must live that history.

Sevan Nişanyan should know this pain.

Because during the 1915 deportation, many Armenian families left their children with trusted Turkish neighbors so that they would not die or perish on the road. Therefore, the event of "adopting and giving up for adoption" is a painful picture hanging on the wall of our recent history. And trying to insult Atatürk through a similar event of this pain that Armenians were also subjected to is very sad for an Armenian citizen like Sevan Nişanyan.

Mr. Sevan, do not do this.

You may not like Atatürk, you may even be his enemy, but giving false and incorrect information such as "Atatürk always adopted girls, he did not adopt boys" is shameful and a sin.

Hitting below the belt against a person who took care of all children in the war without discriminating between Armenian, Turk, Kurd, or Circassian is a great delusion.

And above all, it is a great disrespect to the memory of those cherished people.